NY State Senate Bill 2023-S2718

Current Bill Status - In Senate Committee Judiciary Committee

Introduced
- In Committee Assembly
- In Committee Senate
- On Floor Calendar Assembly
- On Floor Calendar Senate
- Passed Assembly
- Passed Senate
Delivered to Governor
Signed By Governor

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Actions

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	Assembly Actions - Lowercase Senate Actions - UPPERCASE
Jan 03, 2024	referred to judiciary
Jan 24, 2023	referred to judiciary

2023-S2718 (ACTIVE) - Details

See Assembly Version of this Bill:: A3536
Current Committee:: Senate Judiciary
Law Section:: Surrogate's Court Procedure Act
Laws Affected:: Amd §2402, SCPA
Versions Introduced in 2021-2022 Legislative Session:: S5292, A6444

2023-S2718 (ACTIVE) - Summary

Eliminates filing fees for wills filed for safekeeping in the surrogate's court.

2023-S2718 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

                                 
BILL NUMBER: S2718

SPONSOR: MAY
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the surrogate's court procedure act, in relation to
eliminating certain will filing fees

 
PURPOSE:

To eliminate will filing fees in surrogate's court.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 removes the $45.00 will filing fee in surrogate's court.

Section 2 is the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

New York has the largest concentration of attorneys in the United

States, with 179,600 registered attorneys, and 155,369 of those attor-
neys have addresses in the state. However, despite having 17% of the
population and 80% of the land space in the state, there are only 6,176
attorneys serving in the large swaths of rural New York, according to
attorney-registration data. In reality, the number of rural attorneys
that actually offer legal services to individual members of the public
is much smaller than that statistic indicates, since a sizable propor-
tion of these attorneys do not offer legal services to the general
public, such as district attorneys and members of the judiciary. This is
corroborated by data from rural county bars.

One of the main factors that makes practice in rural New York difficult
is that many clients are indigent, meaning they cannot afford standard
hourly rates of most attorneys. As a result of the financial hardships
many rural New York residents face, they have increasingly turned away
from standard estate planning. This has become problematic, especially
as rural New Yorkers are getting older, requiring greater resources for
the courts to process intestacies.

By removing the barrier of a filing fee, solo practitioners who handle
large numbers of will filings for their clients will be able to keep
their rates down, and will benefit estates by encouraging the best prac-
tice of filing wills. Due to the financial hardships faced by many rural
New Yorkers, and the amount of pro bono or low bono work that many rural
attorneys do, the filing fee is an unnecessary barrier and is cost-pro-
hibitive to many New Yorkers.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2021-2022 - S.5292 (May) / A.6444 (Santabarbara)

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

No cost to the state.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
The ninetieth day after it shall have become a law.

2023-S2718 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

                             
                     S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   2718
 
                        2023-2024 Regular Sessions
 
                             I N  S E N A T E
 
                             January 24, 2023
                                ___________
 
 Introduced  by  Sen.  MAY  --  read  twice and ordered printed, and when
   printed to be committed to the Committee on Judiciary
 
 AN ACT to amend the surrogate's court  procedure  act,  in  relation  to
   eliminating certain will filing fees
 
   THE  PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
 BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
 
   Section 1. Subdivision 9 of section  2402  of  the  surrogate's  court
 procedure  act,  as amended by section 30 of part J of chapter 62 of the
 laws of 2003, is amended to read as follows:
   9. For filing:
                                                                 Fee Rate
 (i)   a demand for trial by jury in any  proceeding,  SCPA
         502 .................................................... $150.00
 (ii)  objections to the probate of a will SCPA 1410 ............  150.00
 (iii) a note of issue in any proceeding ........................   45.00
 (iv)  objection  or  answer  in  any  action or proceeding
         other than probate .....................................   75.00
 (v)   [a will for safekeeping pursuant to section 2507  of
         this  act  except that the court in any county may
         reduce or dispense with such fee .......................   45.00
 (vi)]  a bond, including any additional bond:
         less than $10,000 ......................................   20.00
         $10,000 and over .......................................   30.00
   § 2. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day  after  it  shall
 have become a law.
 
 
 
  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                            LBD00475-01-3

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Senate Bill S2718

Sponsored By

Current Bill Status - In Senate Committee Judiciary Committee

2023-S2718 (ACTIVE) - Details

2023-S2718 (ACTIVE) - Summary

2023-S2718 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

2023-S2718 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

Comments

Senate Bill S2718

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Sponsored By

Rachel May

Current Bill Status - In Senate Committee Judiciary Committee

2023-S2718 (ACTIVE) - Details

2023-S2718 (ACTIVE) - Summary

2023-S2718 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

2023-S2718 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

Comments